In the first playoff game of the season the Eckville Eagles won 7-6 in sudden death overtime against the Bonnyville, Pontiacs Feb. 17.
The Eagles started strong with Scott Doucet making the first goal off a feed from Kyle Sheen right at the beginning of first period.
Bonnyville’s Tanner Corbell tied up the game with assistance from teammates Jordan Fudar and Beau Ferbey. Eagles’s Patrick Turville grabbed the lead back with teammates Ian Munro and Brian Pieper helping him make Eckville’s second goal. Chance Abbott kept moving the Eagles ahead, scoring the third goal of the game, assisted by Scott Doucet and Kyle Sheen.
The Pontiacs fought back early in second period with Devon Kalinski scoring Bonnyville’s second goal off teammates Chase Tomlinson and Lucas Isley. Determined to get his team ahead, Kalinski scored again with five minutes left in the period and tied up the game again.
Not willing to be held hostage, the Eagles’ Abbott scored off a feed from Doucet to pull Eckville ahead again.
The Eagles kept pulling ahead with Abbott scoring again off a feed from Doucet early in third period. Turville and Munro worked together to score Eckville’s sixth goal.
The Eagles were up 6-3 with only five minutes in the game. The Pontiacs decided they weren’t willing to let the game go, and fired in three goals within the last five minutes to tie up the game for the third time.
Allias Kalinsky scored the Pontiac’s fourth goal off teammate Dallas Desjarlais’s feed. Desjarlais kept the train going with their fifth goal, with assistance from teammates Lucas Isley and Joel Olszowka. Isley fired in the Pontiac’s sixth and goal, assisted by Joel Olszowka and tied the game.
“We got ourselves in a situation we shouldn’t have been in,” said Coach Cale Walker.
Walker said the team has typically been a third period team, but this game was an unusual one for this year.
“Throughout the year we’ve been down in the third but we’d get it back and we’d win but this time we [were] actually winning in the third.”
Determined to dominate overtime, the Eagle’s Abbott scored the winning goal with assists from Doucet and Sheen and 14:00 on the clock.
“It just shows the amount of character that’s in there,” said Walker of the Eagle’s comeback, saying that’s what hockey is all about - short memory. “Forget about what happened in the third period and go and win the game.”
The next home game will be on Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Eckville Arena.
myra.nicks@eckvilleecho.com
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